I have searched the bejezus out of this site as well as S2KI.com for a good oil filter. It seems most people use a Mobil 1 or an AC Delco or a Wix or a Purelator with an Amsoil thrown in the mix and everyone avoids Fram. Has anyone tried a Baldwin? The B-1402 fits our 04 TL. They are made in Kearney, NE, allegedly in the same factory that makes Amsoil's. They got good reviews on oilfilterstudy.com as a mid priced filter, about half the cost of Mobil 1 and Amsoil, and lots of people on BITOG swear by them. The $5 difference is not going to make or break me but if the difference in filters is small or non existant I'll go with the Baldwin. Otherwise, I'm using an Amsoil, even though I was cautioned against them by Roadrage, because every review I have read about them is good. The only downside is that they are considered too expensive.

 

used baldwin on fleet cars for a few years at the service department. nothing special about them. no complains about pennzoil oil filters, napa isnt bad either.

 

I have found Pennzoil filters to be of very poor build quality - I have sectioned about 4 of the hundreds of filters I have analyzed, which gives you some idea of how few people use them. They look like cheap Fram filters with a yellow can. Thumbs down on them.

Baldwin makes a good filter, but my suggestions here are the same as the ones I give people who PM about this or that "fine tooth comb" filters: The big issues are flow rate, and bypass valve opening. It is pretty easy to understand that the finer the filtering capability, the less flow it has - I have never seen an exception to that. On a car where hi-revs are important (like the TL), if the filter flow rate demanded by the engine is not met, the bypass valve will open, and the oil that is flowing is unfiltered. if that happens enough, you are essentially running without a filter.

That is why the really fine filtering is done by bypass filters, which only use a small amount of the oil flow at a given time. Fine filters like the Baldwin, Champion (who makes the Mobil1 and STP filters) may have adequate flow rates for mostt cars and most drivers, but not all cars and all drivers.

Honda used to spec an Accord filter for the S2000, but in 2004 spec'd a unique filter made expressly for the S2000. I doubt they would have gone that route had their not been a strong engineering and acoounting (read warranty claims) driver to do so. It is obvious to anyone who has taken basic economics that the scale of economy of having a "one filter fits all" would save them a bucket of dollars - so going away from that must have meant that an even bigger bucket of dollars was being spent elsewhere, so my speculation is probably a pretyy good educated guess.

 

OK, so flow rate is more important than filtering...I get it. Then according to the oilfilterstudy.com comparison the low cost Purolator PremiumPlus L34631 and the more expensive Amsoil SD24 are better choices because thay flow very well (and have good filtration) while the Baldwin B1428 and the Mobil 1 M1-303 are not quite as good because of their poorer flow rates. Sound about right?